A variety of industries utilize conveyor belts to transport goods and materials from one place to another. Generally, material is deposited onto an upstream end of an upper carry run of a conveyor belt and is discharged at a downstream end of the carry run of the conveyor belt. Some material may remain adhered to the belt surface after the bulk of the material has been discharged at the downstream end of the carry run of the belt. The material that remains adhered as the belt travels along the lower or return run may fall below the conveyor belt and create waste. It is known to scrape the belt clean as the belt travels along the return run so that it is free of material adhered thereto.
One type of conveyor belt cleaner includes a cross shaft extending across the conveyor belt that is secured to supports on opposite sides of the conveyor belt. The conveyor belt cleaner includes a cartridge that may be releasably connected to the cross shaft extending across the conveyor belt. In one such configuration, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,581,754 to Law, the cartridge has an upper sleeve that receives scraper blades and a lower sleeve that may be slid onto the cross shaft. To permit installation of the cartridge onto the cross shaft, there is a clearance between the larger, lower sleeve of the cartridge and the smaller, cross shaft. However, material removed from the conveyor belt can collect in the clearance and adhere to both the cartridge and the cross shaft along their lengths thereof and effectively bind the cartridge to the cross shaft so that the cartridge cannot be easily removed.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,245,836 to Kotze discloses a belt cleaner with several belt scrapers each having a rubber blade mount bonded to an inverted u-shaped steel mounting base. The mounting base has an opening leading to a rectangular locating recess in the blade mount formed in an underside of the belt scraper. The belt cleaner of the '836 patent includes an elongate base extending across the conveyor belt with triangular locating formations spaced along the elongate base and extending upwardly therefrom. To connect the belt scrapers to the elongate base, the belt scrapers are mounted over the locating formations on the base so that the locating formations are received in the locating recesses of the belt scrapers. Because each belt scraper is mounted over a respective locating formation, each belt scraper must first be aligned with the locating formation and fit onto the locating formation which may be labor intensive and difficult in confined environments.
Each belt cleaner of the '836 patent also has a small, circular securing passage extending through the blade mount that receives a small, circular securing rod for attaching the belt scrapers to the elongate base. Once the belt scrapers have been mounted on the locating formations of the elongate base, the securing rod is passed through an aperture of a flange mounted to the elongate base, through the securing passage of each blade mount, and through an aperture in each of the locating formations of the elongate base and through an aperture of another flange mounted to the elongate base. It may be difficult in some applications to align the flange apertures, blade mount securing passages, and locating formation apertures before passing the securing rod therethrough. Further, the belt cleaner of the '836 patent also requires accurate tolerances to permit all of the apertures to be aligned. Another shortcoming of the belt cleaner of the '836 patent is that a separate, small circular stiffness adjustment rod is passed through a stiffness adjustment slot of each of the blade mounts to provide stiffness for the blade mounts. The stiffness adjustment rod can extend through the stiffness adjustment slot at different positions to provide different amounts of stiffness for the blade mounts. Thus, two separate small circular rods are used to mount and provide stiffness to the blade mounts which makes installation and maintenance more complicated.